Whoosh.
Shindo crouched and blocked her face with her left arm, at this point good for nothing else. Even if it got chopped off, she could fight back with her right. Summoning all of her energy, she thrust the pen in front of her.
She felt the ballpoint wobble in her hand as the plastic entered something soft. Meanwhile, she used her bad arm to fend off a heavy blow. It hurt.
The pain was blunt. Not the pain of being cut down, or the pain of being stabbed.
Shindo jumped back. The pen had driven through Yanagi’s cheek into his mouth.
And the tanto, in Yanagi’s grip, was in its wooden scabbard.
“You . . . ugh, you mean business.”
Yanagi opened wide, showing her how far the pen had gone into his oral cavity.
“But why—”
“Shut up . . . get outta here. You thankless . . . gah, it’s hard to talk.”
With the pen bobbing from his sunken cheek, Yanagi tossed the undrawn short sword at her chest.
“If they catch up with you, use this to cut your throat. I’m not eager to see Utagawa make a plaything outta you.”
“Does this mean . . .”
If word got out that Yanagi let them both escape, his life was on the line. He knew as well as anybody.
“I’m done. Sick of this shit. The boss, this city, this whole game. I’m outta here. Bringing my family, too. First stop, Shimonoseki. Heard there’s a new ferry making trips across the sea. I’m starting over, in the home country.”
Yanagi pulled the pen out. It went pop like a cork.
“Care to join me? We’ll play it off like you’re my sister and my wife.”
Shindo thought about this for a fraction of a second, before shaking her head.
“I’m not going anywhere as anybody’s anything.”
“Idiot. No chance you’ll make it as two women on the run. They’ll snatch you up and chop you into bits. It’d be one thing if they took you down, but the princess, too?” he said, pointing at Shoko. “That’s something I can’t abide.”
Shoko fixed her eyes on Yanagi. Rain dripping from her negligee.
“Do I remind you of my mother?”
The question caught Yanagi off-guard.
“Do I remind you of my mother, Yanagi?” she asked again.
Shoko swayed like an aquatic plant, rooted to the bottom. She gave Yanagi a long look, then turned to Shindo.
Yanagi smiled, a little sheepish.
“. . . No, you don’t. Not even a little bit.”
Hearing this made Shoko giggle like a kid.
THE CIVIC FLOORED it from the compound. Shoko rolled down her window all the way. Her drying hair lashed out in every direction.
“I guess this means we’re going to hell!” she said.
“Going? Fuck no!” Shindo hit the gas and yelled over the wind. “This is it!”
Shoko reached for Shindo’s waist and pulled Eishu Yanagi’s tanto from the scabbard.
“Hell is pretty.”
Without another word, she gathered all her hair into a fist and chopped it off.
Long strands of black hair tumbled from the window. The golden pendant and the chain, cut free with all her hair, fell to the street and broke apart.
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3 スベタ subeta n. [from Portuguese espada] 1. insulting term for a woman 2. playing card worth zero points
4 gaesaekki n. [Korean] 1. young dog 2. [slang] insult mostly used toward men, similar to “bastard”
